Porous-Cladding Polydimethylsiloxane Optical Waveguide for Biomedical Pressure Sensing Applications

We report a new concept of a pressure sensor fully made from polydimethylsiloxane with a solid core and porous cladding that operates through (frustrated) total internal reflection. A flexible and sensitive rectangular cross-section waveguide was fabricated via the casting and molding method. The waveguide’s optical losses can be temperature-controlled during the fabrication process by controlling the quantity of microbubbles incorporated (2% approximately for samples made at 70 °C). By controlling the precuring temperature, the microbubbles are incorporated into the waveguides during the simple and cost-effective fabrication process through the casting and molding method. For these samples, we measured good optical loss tradeoff of the order of 1.85 dB/cm, which means that it is possible to fabricate a solid-core/clad waveguide with porous cladding able to guide light properly. We demonstrated the microbubble concentration control in the waveguide, and we measured an average diameter of 239 ± 16 µm. A sensitivity to pressure of 0.1035 dB/kPa optical power loss was measured. The results show that in a biomedical dynamic pressure range (0 to 13.3 kPa), this new device indicates the critical pressure threshold level, which constitutes a crucial asset for potential applications such as pressure injury prevention.